Mocha Chocolate Chip Cake Recipe (2024)

There is one glaring omission in this recipe. Before pouring the batter into the cake pans, the bottoms of the pans should be lined with parchment paper. Otherwise the chocolate chips on the bottom will melt on the bottom of the pans and make it impossible to get the cake out of the pans. The next time we make this, we will use the parchment paper, as I recommend anyone else do.

Doug, if you read through all of the comments you'll see that 7 months ago (3 months after Daniel's initial "glaring omission" comment), the NYT Cooking Editors revised the recipe based on all of the negative response. So, it is safe to assume that the recipe, as originally written, left out the parchment paper. I'm not sure why this bothered me so much today - except to note that the penchant for hostility in online comments is dragging all parts of our culture down.

We retested this recipe and made a few fixes. There should now be plenty of frosting to cover the entire cake, and the finished cake should be more tender and moist. I hope this helps!

Dusting any inclusion of fruits nuts or chocolate chips in a batter will not sink to the bottom of a pan if they are first dusted with flour. Thats first year culinary school stuff. Get your stuff together New York Times!

I haven't tasted the cake yet but right off a major mistake to add the chocolate chips to the frosting. Make the frosting sans chips and decorate with them after. Very difficult to spread the frosting with the chips. Also, I might make a bit more forting as it was just barely enough to cover the cake well. Based on other reviewers saying the cake is dry I "forked" the finished layers and drizzled a scant tablespoon of kaluha on the cake for flavor and moisture.

Note to self: Remember when about to make: can use demerara in place of turbinado

So many cranky cooks for a splendid recipe...

The updated recipe is definitely co-worker approved. This was a hit at the office- extremely noisy and the frosting perfectly compliments the cake. I recommend using mini chocolate chips or running regular chocolate chips in a food processor to get the equivalent, as the smaller pieces of chocolate work very nicely in this cake.

This seems a little odd. Why did it take the NYT nearly five months to realize there were numerous serious problems with this recipe? Did the NYT actually test this recipe at all? If so, how can it not have noticed such issues? Seems more is needed than just a correction of the recipe. here.

Frosting is fabulous! I will note that for both the cake and the frosting I weighed the dry ingredients as one person mentioned. I was glad I did because I would have been way over on the flour and way under on the powdered sugar had I just measured. I don't usually weigh dry ingredients, but with the al,out equal proportion of those who loved and those who were disappointed with the recipe this seemed like a step worth taking to give the recipe the best chance of success.

Perhaps adding espresso powder to the cake would give it more mocha flavor. And adding oil or extra eggs to the cake might make it more moist.

Lapidary tumbler! That was terrific!

It has been quite awhile since I've made a cake from scratch. Your photo and recipe were so alluring that I decided to take the plunge as we were having company this past weekend. Absolutely delicious and amazing results! My cake looked exactly like the picture (only with mini chips). To say our company was impressed would be a gross understatement! I tip my hat to you and say thank you.

This was a disappointing cake; too dry and it just felt like something wasn't right since I followed the instructions to the letter.

I don’t think the frosting is the best it has too much coffee in it but the cake is fine.

I don’t think the frosting is the best. I think it has too much mocha, but the cake is fine.

for less coffee taste, use 1 1/2 T of the instant coffee with 2 T of boiling water.also, when mixing the butter and confectioner's sugar, make sure beat a a high speed

I make this frequently, substituting Bob's One to One gluten-free flour blend for wheat with no other changes. It works beautifully; my kids dubbed it "Cake of the Year" several years in a row!

The cake is fine but the frosting is terrible. Who uses salted butter AND salt in frosting??? And the espresso ratio plus too much salt makes the frosting almost inedibly bitter and salty. Good thing we tasted it first!

This cake has become my family’s favorite for birthdays. The subtle mocha flavor is great and it’s quite simple to make.

I made this cake this weekend for a Men's Cake Bake Off. I didn't win, but the cake disappeared! It was delicious. I did add powdered sugar to the icing as it was too runny as written, but otherwise it was easy, beautiful, and extremely good! I'll be making it again soon.

Have made twice. As-is the first time and liked the cake itself, but chips were too big and frosting too sweet for my taste. Second time, tried adding Kahlua and espresso to cake, but didn’t like it. Used chopped chocolate, which I liked better than trying to chop up chips. Prefer a different frosting.

I appreciate the noted updated changes. Hands down, this is my husband's favorite cake recipe! He loves it. Going to be making it for a few days for his birthday. Thank you!

Made this today. Reduced sugar by 80 grams, still extremely sweet, would probably reduce by 120 next time, and I was using bittersweet chocolate chips. Took someone’s advice on here to replace 50 grams of flour with cocoa and that was good, although I’d try the original version. Overall good but too one dimensional and overly sweet

This is my new favorite cake to make for friends' birthdays! The turbinado sugar makes the cake so much more interesting with just ever so slight granules in it. And with the frosting...it is hard to stop eating it. A total winner recipe. I actually, as a maker of whoopie pies, tried out the batter in whoopie pie style and it works great w/out spreading. Thank you!

I made this cake tonight. It's very easy. My kids love coffee (don't judge!), and this frosting was just a hair too strong of a taste for them. If you're making this for kids you may want to cut back. The cake and frosting are both wonderful...adjust to your personal taste. I used mini chips as recommended, and they were perfect.

Made exactly as recipe instructed with the change of using 9” pans bc that’s what I had. It was delicious and very different from any other cake I’ve had before! Most of my family said it tasted like breakfast in cake form. The only change I’d make is to use salted butter or salt, but not both. We all agreed it was a little too much salt overall.

Made 1/2 the recipe in an 8" springform pan and split the layers afterwards. Made 6 nice servings.Also added instant coffee granules to the batter. Used half coconut oil half butter in the frosting and topped with chopped up chocolate chips. Prettiest little cake and very delicious!

I made this and it didn't rise very much. I know I used the right amount of baking powder from a brand new container. I used very large bittersweet chocolate chips that I chopped up but maybe not small enough. Could that weight the batter down?